Tour Independence Hall

Take a ranger-led tour of Independence Hall to see the birthplace of the nation! Check here for current hours and operations. Learn how to obtain tickets on the ticketing web page. Don't miss this opportunity to stand in the Assembly Room (where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were both signed) and ponder your own role in the on-going experiment in self-government. The building's history may surprise you. Construction started in 1732, the same year that George Washington was born. Built to be the Pennsylvania State House, the building originally housed all three branches of Pennsylvania's colonial government. The Pennsylvania legislature loaned their Assembly Room out for the meetings of the Second Continental Congress and later, the Constitutional Convention. Here, George Washington was appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in 1775, the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1781, and Benjamin Franklin gazed upon the "Rising Sun" chair in 1787. The second floor of the building served as a hospital for wounded American POWs during the British occupation of Philadelphia in the Revolutionary War. Later, Charles Willson Peale used that space for his Philadelphia Museum. The second floor was the also the scene of fugitive slave trials during the 1850s. No time to visit? Then take a virtual tour and you'll even see the Independence Hall tower. Yep, pretty awesome.